I Made Kombucha!

I made it…and it actually tastes great.

I’m surprised because usually it takes me a solid 3 times before I succeed at making just about anything.

I actually thought for sure that I blew this. My ‘bucha started growing something white on top and I thought it was mold. Turns out, it was another scoby. I guess I should have figured as much, but I was thinking the baby scoby grew underneath the surface of the kombucha and only mold grew on top. No mold here though! Win!

Let’s start from the beginning: I bought a little kombucha kit from a local health food store (Natural Grocers-I think they’re around Colorado, not sure where else). It came with a scoby in a little plastic bag and some black tea bags. The only thing I needed to provide was the sugar, container for brewing, and a towel to cover the brewing container.

Long story short, it sat in my pantry for like, 5 months and I continued to buy store bought bottles of kombucha. My favorite, GT’s, is delicious by the way. Delicious, but expensive. They usually range somewhere between $2.65-3 something. So, they add up.

Then I got started. It was really pretty easy. I brewed the tea bags in a stock pot then once it started boiling, turned the heat off and let it sit until the tea was room temperature.

Once it was, I added the sugar and mixed until it dissolved. Then, I poured the tea into my gallon jar and added the scoby. I covered the jar with a breathable kitchen towel and fastened it with a rubber band.

Next comes the most complicated part…at least for me. So, apparently, kombucha should brew for like, 15-30 days depending on your taste. Before it ferments, it tastes like sweet tea. Somewhere after 15-30 days, it should taste more like kombucha. If you let it ferment longer, the less sweet it will be.

The key to fermentation though, is the correct temperature. I started my jar off in our garage because it is heated and generally dark . I stuck it next to our water heater. After 15 days, I tried it, and it tasted very sweet to me. We let it ferment for another 10 days. I tried it again and it was still very sweet. So, I moved it upstairs onto the floor (it is heated).

It did grow a scoby (as you can see), but was pretty sweet.

After another 5 days, there was no difference. I wasn’t getting the temperature quite warm enough. Luckily, my husband had a heating pad to start growing seedling plants on. So, I took the kombucha back downstairs, placed it on the heating pad, and covered it with a box that I poked holes in. So, now it was definitely warming up more AND was consistently staying in the dark. Finally, my kombucha was ready!

I think we grew like, 3 scoby’s (unless I’m wrong..I’m a beginner).

So, I think overall it took like 35 or so for this batch. Once it was done, I bottled it up in the bottles I bought and actually let the bottles sit out for a few more days. Apparently, doing so adds more carbonation.

As for the scoby: we took the new scoby and 2 cups of the new kombucha and placed it in the fridge to use for the next batch. We tossed the other scoby’s because I didn’t really know what to do with them. Looking back, I wish I would have kept them because I could brew more.

As we speak I have my second batch brewing downstairs. I can already see the new scoby growing on top! Yay!

My husband was really curious about this scoby business. I have to say, it’s pretty bizarre. He actually tried taking a bite out of it (because he’s disgusting) and it was like pure rubber. It’s funny we just saw on Bizarre Foods (anyone else watch that?) that some guy sliced up a scoby and fried it! Ha. I guess anything is good fried.

I’m pretty excited about this little kombucha experiment. I’d love to add some pureed fruit to my next batch.